Joe Turner's Come and Gone: A Play in Two Acts

by August Wilson

Paperback, 1988

Status

Available

Publication

New York : New American Library, c1988.

Description

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Fences comes Joe Turner's Come and Gone--Winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play.   "The glow accompanying August Wilson's place in contemporary American theater is fixed."--Toni Morrison   When Harold Loomis arrives at a black Pittsburgh boardinghouse after seven years' impressed labor on Joe Turner's chain gang, he is a free man--in body. But the scars of his enslavement and a sense of inescapable alienation oppress his spirit still, and the seemingly hospitable rooming house seethes with tension and distrust in the presence of this tormented stranger. Loomis is looking for the wife he left behind, believing that she can help him reclaim his old identity. But through his encounters with the other residents he begins to realize that what he really seeks is his rightful place in a new world--and it will take more than the skill of the local "People Finder" to discover it.   This jazz-influenced drama is a moving narrative of African-American experience in the 20th century.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member wildbill
This play of August Wilson is set in 1911 at the home of Seth and Bertha Holly. Seth rents out rooms in his house and Bertha provides two meals a day. Bynum, a rootworker, and Jeremy a young kid who works on the road and plays guitar are living at Seth's when the play begins. The story centers
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around Harold Loomis who is looking for his wife Martha. He and his daughter Zonia move in to Seth's house at the beginning of the play. Harold pays Rutherford Selig, who is a traveling salesman and a people finder, to find his wife.
During the play Harold goes into a spell and Bynum talks him out of it. Seth doesn't like Harold going into a spell and tells him he will have to move. Zonia gets to know Reuben, the boy next door, who kisses her and says she will be his wife. Jeremy picks up with one woman and then runs off with Molly Cunningham who is real slick.
The play takes place in Seth's kitchen or in the back yard. August Wilson is an excellent playwright. I don't say that lightly. I enjoyed spending time in the world of Seth, Bertha and the others. Seth and Bynum play dominoes while Bynum sings " Joe Turner's Come and Gone". Everybody eats a biscuit with grits and gravy for breakfast and fried chicken on Sunday. It's a friendly place.
Wilson's skill is in making the play an authentic portrayal of this experience. I felt that this play focused on the issue of personal power. It included several incidents that illustrated how racism deprived African Americans of power over their lives. To make sure you can't forget at the end we learn who Joe Turner is and get a real cruel example of white supremacy at work in the lives of some nice people who just happened to be African American. Read this play and then talk about the good old days.
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LibraryThing member deckla
This play, the 2nd chronologically in Wilson's ten-play cycle, is a character study of the inhabitants of a boarding house in Pittsburgh in 1911. I worked on the Broadway production of this play. The lyricism of the play stays with me, but I have trouble remembering the sequence of events, perhaps
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because the play is an exploration of losing yourself in spirituality, with an ambiguous point of view. Most unforgettable lines: "Say when you look at a fellow, if you taught yourself to look for it, you can see his song written on him. Tell you what kind of man he is in the world. Now I can look at you, Mr. Loomis, and see you a man who done forgot his song. Forgot how to sing it. A fellow forget that and he forget who he is. Forget how he's supposed to mark down life..."
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Awards

Tony Award (Nominee — Play — 1988)

Language

Barcode

6626
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